Qantas and WestJet Enter Reciprocal Frequent Flyer Agreement

26th May 2016

Australian airline Qantas Airways announced on Tuesday that it has entered a reciprocal frequent flyer partnership with WestJet, a carrier based in Canada. This will allow members of either airline's frequent flyer programs to earn both Qantas Points and WestJet dollars when flying with either of the two airlines.

Apart from being able to earn Qantas Points on code-share flights with WestJet, Qantas Frequent Flyer members will also have access to a number of destinations in Canada serviced by WestJet.

"Not surprisingly, travel is the number one interest of Qantas Frequent Flyers so we know our members will be excited about being able to earn and use their points when traveling with WestJet. Qantas Frequent Flyer has more than 50 airline partners and affiliates, which gives our members access to over 1,200 destinations and this partnership with WestJet opens up even more new routes for them to fly while earning and using their Qantas Points."

Bob Cummings, Executive Vice President, Commercial at WestJet said about the partnership with Qantas:

"We are thrilled to team up with Qantas to bring significant benefit to guests of both airlines. We are confident that our members are going to love earning WestJet dollars while flying on the Qantas global network and we are equally excited to welcome Qantas frequent flyers aboard and offer them a new opportunity to earn Qantas Points everywhere WestJet flies."

The WestJet CEO continued:

"This will be a significant improvement to our reward program value proposition. Our research showed that global travel is a significant aspirational attribute that our program needs. We have come a long way with our rewards program and airline partnerships since launching in 2010 and will continue to add value to our guests through these vehicles going forward. Adding these capabilities to our rewards program and working with our airline partners are all part of our long-term strategic plan."

The Australian and Canadian airlines are also working on a fully reciprocal redemption deal, which should be ready sometime in 2017.